POSTED: Saturday, July 31, 2004 10:27:53 AM
CLEVELAND -- The Afghan girls soccer team playing in the International Children’s Games this week found their coach in a local soccer legend.
Ali Kazemaini, an Iranian immigrant, even speaks the girls’ language, Farsi.
Kazemaini played in the Major Indoor Soccer League for Cleveland and for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. He runs a soccer academy in suburban Willoughby. Friday, he ran his first practice with the Afghan girls’ squad.
The girls had a variety of instructors from their homes in Kabul to their training site in Connecticut, but couldn’t find a coach in Cleveland.
Kazemaini, soccer sports co-chairman for the Children’s Games and soccer coach at John Carroll University, finally volunteered himself.
